Three Bucks men face child porn charges

Police in Bucks County have arrested three men in separate undercover investigations and charged them with downloading and viewing child pornography.

Pennridge Regional police say they charged Robert Fitzgerald, 67, of West Rockhill Township on Wednesday; Frank Gifford, 46, of West Rockhill Township on Tuesday; and Terrell Cressman, 20, of East Rockhill Township last week.

All were released on $10,000 recognizance bail.

According to arrest affidavits:

On May 16, 2009, police began an investigation into computer users downloading and sharing child pornography. They identified a computer belonging to Cressman. Police went to his home July 10 to serve a search warrant.

Police asked Cressman if he knew why they were there and he pointed to the computer and said "because of the child pornography." He told police he accidentally stumbled upon child pornography, but later began to intentionally download it. Police said they found 32 child pornography files on his computer.

On Aug. 26, police began another investigation that led them to Gifford. Police went to his home in October to serve a search warrant. When police asked him if he knew why they were there, he said he may have seen some "inappropriate things" on the Internet. A search of his computer found 22 images of child pornography.

Police began another investigation on Sept. 28, monitoring the activity of a computer belonging to Fitzgerald for about two months. During that time, police determined that the computer contained up to 22 files of child pornography.

Police served a search warrant on Dec. 9 and spoke to Fitzgerald, who admitted that he downloaded child pornography. He told police he was curious and realized what he was "doing was wrong." He told police he deleted the files.

A search of the computer did not find any child pornography files, but police said several text fragments were found, which indicated that child pornography files were viewed on the computer.